Otaki no longer country’s most marginal seat

From a quiet start at 7.30pm with a few campaign workers grabbing a quick bite of takeaway noodles, the mood at Darren Hughes’ Otaki election night party grew to a quietly confident crowd of about 70 people.

But as the night progressed, and the swing from Labour to National became more obvious, the atmosphere in the room was subdued.

Mr Hughes made an energetic and positive entry to the room at about 9pm, but by 10pm it was obvious that the Otaki seat was following the nationwide trend of a swing to National.

“Today turned out to be my last day on the job. Didn’t our area look fantastic today,” said an emotional Mr Hughes as he conceded that he had lost his Otaki seat to Nathan Guy.

Some swings on some seats had been difficult to watch, but he took comfort in the fact that the swing on this seat was much smaller than some, at only 2.9 per cent.

He said he would go to the Levin Club to concede in person to Nathan, “not a courtesy ever extended to me by the National party. “But we do things properly in the Labour party.”

It had been a privilege to be part of Helen Clark’s government, and he had left the community in a better place, with better facilities in health, and the dedication of new pensioner housing this week.

Leaving with a lot of the hard work done in setting up for infrastructure building, was also a source of satisfaction for him.

He thanked all of his staff and supporters, with a special tribute to the previous Labour MP, Judy Keall, whom he described as “indefatigable.”

He then made his way to the Levin Club, where he congratulated Nathan Guy and his wife and parents.